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Centaurus engineering students get smashing support at CU-Boulder

Test of towers' strength is illuminating lesson for high schoolers

By Amy Bounds Camera Staff Writer

Posted:
11/23/2013 03:00:00 PM MST

Dylan Rea, left, gets his tower back after testing. Kevin Dorland will have his tested next. Freshman students from Centaurus High School work together in small groups to design and assemble the strongest, lightweight tower made out of acrylic plastic.
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CLIFF GRASSMICK
)

Centaurus High School freshmen spent a morning last week in the engineering lab at the University of Colorado watching a machine relentlessly crush the acrylic towers that they designed.

The students, who are in an introduction to engineering class, were tasked with designing a tower that was both as light and as strong as possible. The team in each class with the tower that could withstand the most weight earned the best grade.

"It was a little challenging," said freshman Mackenzie Albrecht. "We worked really hard."

Students also made a circuit using LED lights and copper strips with the help of employees from SparkFun and took a tour of both the Integrated Teaching and Learning lab and the CU campus.

"We want to get the kids up to CU to show them what's going on and get them excited about engineering," said Centaurus engineering teacher Nick Cady.

Along with the visit to CU, the Centaurus students also get help during class from CU engineering graduate students through the TEAMS Program -- a partnership between CU and the Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley school districts.

"It's awesome getting them up here and using all our equipment," said Olivia Carnes, a CU mechanical engineering graduate student who works with Centaurus students twice a week.

She said the tower project is a good way to spark interest in engineering.

"Engineering isn't just sitting around solving equations all day," she said. "It's designing and creating."

Students designed the towers, which couldn't be more than 10 inches tall, using a 3D modeling computer program that also allowed them to run stress tests. To make the towers lighter, students added cut-out shapes to the walls, some going with simple rows of circles and others using complicated designs. Next, the designs were sent to CU to be created of acrylic with a laser cutter.

Centaurus freshman Matthew Axelrod, who wants to go into architectural engineering, said he went through 10 different designs before settling on the one he liked best. Watching his team's creation get smashed to pieces, he said, was "pretty cool" -- especially because their tower withstood more pressure, 2,759 pounds, than the others in his class.

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